My major research efforts center on documenting the variation that exists in the brains of living vertebrates. I believe the comparative method is the most reasonable way in which to understand the phylogenetic history and the mechanisms underlying brain evolution. In this application I outline a plan for continuing my efforts to characterize the anatomical organization of the amphibian telencephalon in order to contrast and elucidate the evolutionary mechanisms that characterized the changes seen from amphibians to more advanced land vertebrates. It is necessary to examine another closely related generalized anamniotic vertebrate to strengthen the basis for comparing amphibians to more advanced land vertebrates because the morphological organization of amphibians may be degenerate and thus bias the analysis. The African lungfish, Protopterus, has been chosen for comparison as it is most closely related to the fossil crossopterygians that gave rise to amphibians and because it possesses similar neural organization to the living crossopterygian, Latimeria. Since Latimeria is known from a very few specimens only and cannot be utilized for experimental studies, comparison of the lungfishes with amphibians provides the strongest base for comparison. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES: Northcutt, R. Glenn. 1976. Retinofugal pathways in fetal dogfish pups, Squalus acanthias: an autoradiographic study. Anat. Rec., 184: 489-490. Northcutt, R. Glenn, and Ann B. Butler. 1976. Retinofugal pathways in the longnose gar Lepisosteus osseus (Linnaeus). J. Comp. Neur., 166: 1-16.